His eyes shoot past me, a cryptic grin rolling over his lips as heat impacts my back and another set of strong hands grip my shoulders.
“I’ve got her.”
“You don’t have me,” I argue, pulling away.
Spinning to face Ezra, I stare up at a blank expression.
Actually, not entirely blank, there is something rolling behind that amber stare.
“We should talk,” is all he says, his voice calm but still carrying a dangerous edge that runs cold fingers along my nape and down my spine.
“Why would you do that to them?”
It’s fucked up, right?
Hillary and Kelly have constantly been on me, saying things and doing things to make me feel horrible about myself. Yet here I am defending them.
Not their actions.
Not their words.
But their right not to be made a game by the twins.
Maybe by defending them, I’m really defending myself. Somehow it’s easier that way, but I’m not sure why.
Damon must have returned to the table because it’s only Ezra and me now.
Staring at him centers my attention, the ballroom fading away, the students gone. Even the music no longer infiltrates my mind as I become lost to an amber gaze that burns with all the thoughts I wish he’d tell me.
I don’t have to specify who them is. He knows my anger has everything to do with their fake dates.
“Do you know who’s been spreading the rumors about us at school? Do you know it was Hillary that made sure your mom found out?”
The corner of his lips quirk to see the obvious confusion on my face. “You didn’t know.”
“How-“
“She went to a teacher concerned about you being around me. That teacher apparently called your mom.”
That bitch.
I’d wondered how Mom knew.
Stepping closer to me, Ezra drops his head so he can whisper against my ear. He doesn’t touch me, though, just steals the space around me like it belongs to him.
“I told you I’d hurt anyone who says a word about us. And since I don’t beat up women, I found another way. She’s hurting, and she knows exactly why.”
It’s wrong to feel a small amount of satisfaction in what he’s done, and I should feel bad. But I don’t. Not if Hillary really was the person who managed to alert my mom.
How she even knew to do that, I don’t know. Then again, it’s not a secret that Mason and my families have this weird agreement.
“But how can that be true, about you intending to hurt them? You were planning to take them back to Gabriel’s tonight-“
“No I wasn’t. I was planning on them being bitches to you the first time they saw you, which was when I planned to tear them down and show them how little they mattered. Why do you think I was standing there? I watched you leave the room and saw them take off after you. I knew it would happen. Plus, now that Damon and I showed up with them, nobody is talking about you and me anymore. That may have also been part of my plan, and it worked.”
I barely hear his last words because I’m still stuck on something else he said. “You were watching me?”
“All night,” he admits. “I can’t stop watching you.”
“That’s a bit creepy.”
He laughs, the sound dark and haunting.
“Damon told you that you’re off limits. I’ve already claimed you.”
Which reminds me...
What Ezra and Damon did to Hillary and Kelly still doesn’t excuse them for playing a game against me.
“I don’t like being played either,” I admit, my voice just as soft as his.
He turns his head to hear me better, and our mouths are so close, our eyes tangled in a moment that disturbs the butterflies in my stomach, causing them to swarm and flutter, a moving cloud of color that would be gorgeous against a clear blue sky.
When he doesn’t answer, I make my demand.
“If you want to continue this, you need to tell me the secret of telling you and Damon apart. I won’t be played anymore. Not like this.”
He blinks at that, humor dancing behind his eyes.
For a moment, I don’t think he’ll answer, but then he points to the left side of his neck.
“Do you see that?”
I study the skin he points to, but it’s clear of any mark or blemish. It’s just smooth, olive-toned skin, more golden from time spent in the sun.
“There’s nothing there.”
His grin curls more. “When you look at Damon next, you’ll know what I’m pointing at.”
A freckle, I guess.
Just like Mason said.
It must be so subtle that not many people have picked up on it.
“Feel better now?”
No. I’m still mad, but I’m getting better. I nod my head because it’s easier than standing here continuing this argument.
His hand brushes mine.
“Then come dance with me.”
I want to, but there are teachers and other school administrators. They’ll report back to my parents if I dance with anybody besides Mason. Especially if it’s the twins.
Sheepishly, I answer, “I can’t.”
“But it’s your prom.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
Anger rolls behind his eyes, but he doesn’t argue again. Instead, he glances above my head back to the Inferno table.
“Are you allowed to leave with Mason?”
My brows tug together. “Yes. Why?”
The slow smile of his is back, his eyes glimmering with wicked mischief. “Then we’ll leave here and dance somewhere else.”
“But Mason has a date.”
He lowers his head again so that we’re eye level, his shoulders so broad that he fills my vision.
Ezra consumes me somehow, and I barely even know him.
It’s what makes him dangerous.
This can never lead somewhere.
It can only be for fun.
Trapping my chin with his hand, he rubs the pad of his thumb over my lips. All I want to do is open my mouth so I can taste his skin.
Heat bursts behind his eyes like he knows exactly what I’m thinking.
“You let me take care of that. This is your prom. And I’m about to make damn sure you have a reason to remember it.”
Emily
To say it’s awkward being in the back of this limo is an epic understatement.
In truth, I’ve never felt so nervous and uncomfortable in my life, my fingers tapping slowly over my leg, the silence deafening as we all stare at each other without any ability to bridge this deep canyon of a gap.
On either side of me are Damon and Ezra. Four fit to a seat, so to the left of Damon is Shane, and on the seat facing us is Mason, Sawyer, Gabriel and Tanner. I’m the only girl in the limo.
The only one.
That fact is made even more evident by the way each of the Inferno boys stare at me (excluding the twins, of course, since they created this situation).
When it was decided it was time to leave, Milly Ferguson had her own ride because she’d met Mason at the dance, so she left on her own. The twins insisted I walk out with Mason as if we were happily continuing our date.
Shane and Sawyer packed their dates into the limo they’d shared to prom for them to go home, Gabriel and Tanner doing the same thing with theirs.